Coach makes bad call

Anyone who thought this week was going to be boring, think again.
Coldwater High coach John Reed, whose team will play Cardinal Mooney in Saturday's Division IV state final, was asked in a state-wide teleconference Monday how much better Mooney is with quarterback Derrell Johnson on the field.
It was an innocent question. With a not-so-innocent answer.
"He brings another facet to their game," Reed said of Johnson, who transferred from Campbell High to Mooney last winter. "It was a great move to get him."
A reporter, picking up on the hint, asked Reed if he thought public schools such as Coldwater were at a disadvantage playing parochial schools such as Mooney.
"I don't think there's any question about that," Reed said. "The town of Coldwater has three or four thousand people and all the kids come from [the same school district].
"It's an unlevel playing field. It's nice to be able to go to Campbell and pick out a quarterback. I can only imagine what an all-star team from Mercer County" -- where Coldwater is located -- "would look like. But that's just the way it is. There's nothing we can do about that."
Strange timingfor complaint
From a journalistic standpoint, this is sort of like finding a $50 bill on the ground. Especially since most coaches use the teleconference as a way to talk about how great their opponents are.
I just question the timing.
I'm not going to go into the public/private debate this week, nor am I going to argue that Reed is wrong to feel that way. But when you complain about parochial schools having an advantage five days before you're going to play in a state championship game, you're basically giving your team an excuse to lose.
And that bugs me.
"It is interesting timing," said Mooney coach P.J. Fecko. "The focus isn't on the game and that's puzzling to me."
Reed shared similar thoughts after his team lost to Ursuline in the 2000 state final, which was the last time the Cavaliers played in the state championship game.
"I think I made the comment back then that you could have an S-10 truck and it could be the best truck it can be, but if it meets a semi going the other way, the semi is going to win," Reed said. "We just have to hope that our speed and tenacity will level things out a little bit [on Saturday]."
Reed was no doubt exaggerating, but what makes those comments so puzzling is the fact that Coldwater enters Saturday's final as the state's top-ranked team.
"When people say things like that, they obviously don't know the facts," Fecko said. "Furthermore, with open enrollment, there's a lot of public schools in the same scenario. There are a lot of athletes around here going to different schools and I'm sure it's the same thing over there [on the northwest side of the state].
"In situations like these, people make assumptions without knowing what they're talking about. But that's what's beautiful about America. You can do that."
Staying awayfrom debate
Regardless of where you stand on the public/private debate -- and there's some pretty heated opinions on both sides -- the setup isn't going to change this week. And if Coldwater loses this weekend, it's going to sound like sour grapes, which is why so many public school coaches prefer not to talk about it during the season -- if at all.
"If you want to find an excuse not to be successful, you can find one," said Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky, whose team will play a parochial school, Toledo Central Catholic, in Friday's Division II state final. "Some years you're too small, too slow or too hurt. We just play the teams on our schedule that we're told to play.
"I don't think it's my place to tell parents where to send their kids."
Obviously, Reed has a pretty good team this year. Maybe his team is at a disadvantage -- maybe -- but at this point, it's a moot point. All Reed did was give his team an excuse for losing. (Along with some rather spicy bulletin board material for the Cardinals.)
A coach has to make a lot of good calls during the season to get his team to the state final. On Monday, Reed made a bad one.
XJoe Scalzo is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.